Chopsticks
by lovefromhogwarts
Summary: Lily Evans decides a night out for dinner with her mum is a great way to bond, and everything seems to be going quite well until a group of wizards comes in... set in the summer after their fifth year. (Full photocreds for the cover image go to anxiouspineapples, who is an excellent artist).


Glasses clinked and chatter filled the small Asian cafe. A waiter bustled over to the table. "Sweet & Sour," he read off a notebook, "with a side of white rice?"

A girl who couldn't have been any older than maybe sixteen or so raised her hand subtly. "That'd be mine." She had striking red hair that contrasted spectacularly with her almond-shaped, sparkling green eyes. Her pale skin complimented her distinctive features quite well. The young waiter set the plate down graciously in front of her.

Turning to the other woman sitting at the table, "And I'm guessing the Traditional Spicy Stir-Fry is yours, then?" This woman was notably older than the redheaded girl, though they shared the pale skin and bright green eyes. A label on her coat revealed her as Charlotte Marianne Evans. She nodded and smiled as her dish appeared. "If you need anything-" The waiter began.

"Thank you." Both women spoke simultaniously, successfully cutting off the waiter, who rushed off to help another table. The women smiled at each other. It was an Evans family habit, so to speak.

"Too bad we couldn't get our usual table in the back. Wonder who's got all that space reserved." Charlotte began digging into her plate, but the younger girl didn't reply. "What do you think, Lily?"

The redheaded girl, now revealed as Lily, shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe some fancy businessman or elite politician. Who else needs that much space? I would say a celebrity or something of that sort, but one would think they'd be more likely to rent out space in... a club, or something."

"Hm," Charlotte said, "I guess that's a fairly rantional explanation."

Lily nodded lightly before a crowd of dark, suited figures entered the little resturaunt. Nodding towards the group entering, the Evans women watched them. Something almost seemed familiar about one of the men, but Lily couldn't place it, and she was sure she'd never seen him before.

Soon, a group of waiters had appeared, ushering them back into the reserved section. Near the end of the group, she heard all-too-familiar voices.

"Prongs, that match wasn't even that good..."

"But did you see the power on that new Cleansweep! If only the Seeker had held his act together, the Arrows totally would've had it in the bag."

Lily's face was as red as a tomato, from a mix of humiliation, fear, and anger. It was only June! They weren't supposed to be bothering her yet, especially not in front of her mother!

"Oh, dear God. Mum, hide me!" Lily groaned, trying unsuccessfully to hide under the booth. Fortunately, the two teenage boys passed straight by, hardly batting an eye. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, the teenager finally began popping the little bits of sweet & sour chicken into her mouth with her chopsticks. To make it easier, she had slipped a hairtie around the ends of them to hold them together. She's learned the trick from Petunia, and despite her current feelings toward her sister, she did very, very, _very_ occasionally come in handy. Lily looked up to see her mum staring her down increduously.

"Care to explain?" Charlotte asked, faux casual. "They didn't look that scary, honestly Lily."

She was unable to look at her mother. "They go to school with me, Mum. It's summer break, I really do not want to see them." Hoping the explanation would satisfy her mother's questions, Lily sipped at her water, nearly choking in amusement as she saw something over her mothers shoulders.

/ / / / / /

James Potter was going to kill himself.

Really, why couldn't they just give you forks and be done with it? Handing someone two wooden sticks and saying 'eat' was basically saying, in James' mind, 'here, if you can't figure out how to eat, you can starve'. Sirius wasn't helpful either; he sat there and laughed at James' expense every time the chopsticks slipped or a morsel of food dropped out of his grasp.

Despite how awkward and uncivilized he would look, he was honestly debating just eating with his hands or transfiguring one of those bloody sticks into a fork. However, he knew that would end badly. This cafe was full of Muggles and he wasn't yet of age. If only he could just turn seventeen...

Reluctantly, he picked up the chopsticks one more. Unfortunately for James, this time around went even worse. While his parents discussed an important business affair, he accidentally flung a glob of soy sause and rice into one of the associate's elaborate hairstyles. A stunned silence fell over the table, until they heard someone laughing.

The table turned their attention towards the girl laughing. Lily changed her laugh into a sort of cough. James couldn't help smirking. "Evans! You've taken up stalking me, I see."

"Obviously, Potter." She replied sarcastically. "Actually, I was here first. I was just hiding under the table when you came in."

"YEAH!" The whole cafe seemed to have turned to Sirius Black. "FIVE GALLEONS. I told you, I so told you!"

Eventually, the interest of bystanders shifted as James shot back, "Not now, Padfoot!"

The wizards at James and Sirius' table had lost interest, having heard of the pairs' infamous quarrels. Lily's own mother had just rolled her eyes and continued eating. Sirius even turned back around and began eating his recently arrived plate.

"Well," James said across the room, "fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah, yeah," she waved away his conversational attempts, "I want to eat. And since you're apparently as bad with chopsticks as I am, here you go." In the blink of an eye, Lily's dark red locks had tumbled onto her shoulders and a well-shot hairtie hit James Potter in the arm.

"Ouch. What was that for? I didn't even do anything horrible this time. I haven't even gotten to asking you out yet!" He spoke, picking up the hairtie, only to discover Lily standing in front of him.

"Just watch." She held out her own chopsticks and showed him how to wrap it around properly to help him use them as intended. His movements mimiked hers flawlessly. "See? Now you can eat without, er, launching rice into people's hair."

"Thanks," he said, a genuine smile covering his (admittedly) attractive face. "Really, Lils. I'm hopeless with these things."

"Chopsticks." She corrected automatically. Soon, she found herself grinning back at James. "And you're welcome."

"I thought you hated me."

"I don't hate you... not really." He was leaning in closer and closer as she spoke. "But stop trying to seduce me against the wall of a cafe, it's very unromantic." Lily gave him a playful shove and blew a fake, chaste kiss to him. James pretended to catch it before waving at her merrily. As she walked back to her table, an undeniable pink spreading across her cheeks, only one thought occured to her.

_Maybe James Potter wasn't **so** bad._


End file.
